Mill Scale Mill scale is the product of oxidation which takes place during hot rolling. The oxidation and scale formation of steel is an unavoidable phenomenon during the process of hot rolling which involve reheating of steel in a reheating furnace, multi-pass hot rolling and air-cooling in the inter-pass delay times and after rolling. Mill scale is usually removed by process water used for descaling, roll and material cooling, and by other methods. It is subsequently separated by gravity separation techniques. The formation of oxide scale not only results in a significant loss of yield of steel, but also deteriorates the surface quality of the steel product caused by rolled-in scale defects or roughened surface. In addition, the presence of a hard scale layer on the steel can have an adverse effect on roll wear and working life. The amount of mill scale generated in a rolling mill depends on the type of the reheating furnace and on the practice of rolling adopted in the mill. It is generally in the range of 1 % to 3 % of the weight of the steel rolled. Mill scale mill scale is a layered and brittle material, composed of iron oxides with wustite as a predominant phase. It is normally considered as waste material. From the chemical and physical analysis performed on the mill scale, and with respect to the environmental concerns, mill scale is considered to be non-dangerous waste and normally considered as a green waste. Scale formed during the heating of steel to rolling temperatures in the reheating furnace is known as primary scale. This primary scale is removed generally by hydraulic descaling before hot rolling. The removal of the primary scale formed during the reheating operation before hot rolling is usually done for...

Scale Formation in Reheating Furnace Reheating furnaces constitute an important element in the rolling of steels, in which the semi-finished steel products are heated to a desired temperature for achieving the plastic properties in the products for rolling. The basic purposes of heating the semi-finished steel products for rolling include (i) to soften the steel for making it suitable for rolling, and (ii) to provide a sufficiently high initial temperature so that rolling process is completed in fully austenitic temperature region. During reheating in the reheating furnace, steel is passed through the furnace along which the temperature is gradually increased up to the soak zone. In there, the temperature is kept constant for thermal and chemical homogeneity of the steel. The reheating furnace is a direct fired furnace which uses either of the gaseous, liquid, or solid fuel and air. The composition of the atmosphere within the furnace generally consists mainly of nitrogen (N2), Carbon di-oxide (CO2), water vapour (H2O) and free oxygen (O2). The atmosphere composition can vary drastically during the operation. These variations are functions of the air/fuel ratio, which in turn, depends on furnace and mill operating conditions. Reheating furnace for the reheating of steel is conceptually divided into three zones. Starting from the discharge end of the reheating furnace, these zones are (i) soaking zone, (ii) heating zone/zones, and (iii) pre-heating zone. In the soaking zone, fuel and air is fired through the furnace burners at normal or reduced primary fuel stoichiometry. This zone has high furnace temperature. The temperature of steel is equalized through its cross section in this zone. The exhaust gases from this zone travel to heating zones. The heating zones, which are between preheating zone and the soaking zone, require high radiant heat transfer for increasing...